A VM michine can completely shut down and when it starts back up again it can remember it's USB settings, right?

[Stevamundo]

Hi,

I think it's right? However with my problem is that I'm using an old OS "XP" with an old program called "HotFax Message Center."  The Hotfax is connected to an old modem using a SCSI to an USB adapter that's plugged into my Mac. Actually this connection works quiet well but I have to manually connect it with my virtual michine is cold started.

I have the exact virtual machine in Parallels too. Parallels always starts that connection up automatically. I wonder why that Fusion doesn't.

[bluefirestorm]

The VMs usuallly remember so long as the USB device is still connected to it before the guest VM is shut down.

Have you tried the steps outlined here?

Automatically connecting USB devices at virtual machine power on (1648) | VMware KB

[Stevamundo]

Thank you, but I'm not a programmer at all. That stuff looks very complicated!

I never disconnect my old modem to my Mac, never.

[bluefirestorm]

It isn't as hard as the article looks.

If you know your way around vmware.log files and editing the vmx files in Fusion, it won't be a hard thing to do.

The process is basically looking for a text pattern (the USB device name/signature) in one file (vmware.log) and using that text pattern in another (the VM configuration file, vmx).

[Stevamundo]

I absolutely have NO idea how to do this. I'm NOT taking a chance in screwing my Fusion up.

Here's another clue, when I just restarting to VM it still remembers my USB connection. However when I do shut down the VM and then I restart the VM again, it doesn't remember it's USB connection.

[bluefirestorm]

Understand completely if you don't want to edit it to risk messing things up.

USB device connections, whether in Fusion on Mac or Workstation on Windows/Linux, AFAIK always remain connected to the VM after a guest restart.

I can do edit the vmx for you (whether you want to try to use it is another matter) or at least point out to you what to edit/add in your vmx file.

You can send the vmware.log (and maybe the previous ones as well such as vmware-0.log, vmware-1.log and vmware-2.log) and the vmx file as an attachment over here. But BEFORE you attach the vmware.log, you should perform the action of connecting the USB device you want so that the USB connection signature text would be present in the log.

The location of the vmware.log and vmx should be in /Users/<Your user ID>/Documents/Virtual Machines/<Your VM package> in Finder, you should do a Show Package Contents to see the files in Finder.

EDIT: Of course you can also decline to attach any file over. I also realised that by pointing out the location of the files to look for, you can venture into looking at the log(s) also.

[Stevamundo]

Ok here we go.

[bluefirestorm · Accepted solution]

I saw this

name:Future\ Devices\ USB\ HS\ SERVER\ CONVERTER vid:0403 pid:6001 path:10/15/1/2/3/2

and edited the vmx to have this

usb.autoConnect.device0 = "vid:0403 pid:6001"

The bold blue is just for emphasis what was seen in the text and what was added. The usb.autoConnect.device0 entry was already there but was blank before. This just means this particular device will always be connected regardless of which USB port. I think vid stands for vendor ID and pid maybe means product ID. Every device vendor has a unique vendor ID and every device/product they make have a device ID.

I saw another non-Apple USB device called studioZee Zephir in the log but a Google search result would indicate that this is an IrDA device and not the USB to SCSI that you were referring to. If you want this to autoconnect, edit the usb.autoConnect.device1 = "" blank entry. I didn't edit this in the vmx.

I have attached here the modified vmx (which only has the Future Devices USB converter device). You can back up first the original vmx if you wanna try this one as-is. Or you can edit it as I outlined above.

If you want to edit the vmx yourself, as an alternative to going through Finder, you can go to the Virtual Machine Library, press Option key, two finger tap on the VM and it will show "Open Config File In Editor".

Hope whichever which way you choose, the autoconnect works out for you.

[vmxmr]

I am having a different but related problem in this thread:

USB Ethernet Adapter Won't Connect at Startup

It appears that I will have to write a shell script to detect when the USB Ethernet adapter has been connected to the macOS host, and after that, launch VMware Fusion. I have not yet tried to write that script.

[Stevamundo]

Yes it worked.  Thank you very much!!!!!!

BTW, I just replaced my .vmx file with yours new one. Also my zephir is for my Mac. It has nothing to do with Fusion or Windows.

Thank you again!

[Stevamundo]

Hi,

I need same kind of help again with a different VM. This time I need my zeppir to audiomatically connect with this VM.

Thank you, Steve

[bluefirestorm]

The Zephir has this signature

Found device [name:studioZee\ Zephir vid:08a1 pid:0007 path:13/15/1/4 speed:low family:vendor arbRuntimeKey:2 version:3]

So I added this line to the macOS vmx configuration file which I have attached.

usb.autoConnect.device0 = "vid:08a1 pid:0007"

[Stevamundo]

It worked. Thank you!